Country 1 - Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a land locked country in South and Central Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China and is the worlds 41st biggest country! 
It is a multi-ethnic country and 99% of its population is Muslim. The Afghan culture has been around for over 2000 years and it is mainly a Nomadic and Tribal society with different regions having their own traditions with many people following ancient ways of life.
Afghan food is based around the countries main crops - wheat, maize, barley and rice. They enjoy fatty foods to help them cope with the harsh winters but they do not use hot spices. Dried fruits and nuts are frequently used as well as dairy products like milk, yogurt and whey.

We were excited and nervous about cooking our first global meal - there are so many things to choose. Finally we decided to cook the Afghan national meal with a few side dishes. 
It is interesting that so many countries have very similar food just changed a little. Kabuli Palau is a rice dish similar to biryani, paella, jambalaya and risotto. We decided to use chicken in ours as lamb is difficult to find in Nova Scotia. With it we made; Sabse Borani - spinach yogurt dip, Burani Bonjon - spicy braised aubergine(eggplant) and Noni Afghani - Afghan flat bread.

Everything needed to be cooked at the same time - with familiar recipes this isn't a problem but when you have to keep checking the recipe it was a juggling act. It's just as well we enjoy cooking together! 

I've never boiled a raw chicken before - luckily we could just fit it in the pot with the correct amount of water. It cooked surprisingly quickly and we were left with a lovely stock to use for cooking the rice. The skin was weird though - when you are used to crispy skin - this time it was soft and a bit slimy (the dogs didn't complain though!).                    

Gary made the aubergine side dish. It reminded us of one of our favourite Indian dishes, Brinjal Bhaji - but without as many spices.

We treated ourselves to a skillet for making flat breads - I think it might be coming in very useful. Once we got the temperature right it cooked the Noni Afghani really quickly.

Our meal is ready. OK so we cheated a bit and had some wine - not strictly Afghan - but it was Saturday night! We also used knife and forks not our fingers - it's really difficult to eat food like this with your fingers when you are not used to it!

                             

Kabeli Palau - basically rice, chicken and garam masala decorated with some carrots, raisins and slivered almonds.
It was delicious!
We really thought this was going to be bland. The chicken was just boiled in plain water - no onions or leeks or carrots but it was so flavoursome. I had made a paste using caramelized onions, tomato paste and garlic so I guess that helped. It wasn't obviously spiced by the garam masala but it was so tasty.
click here for the recipe for Kabeli Palau

Burani Bonjon - aubergines and tomatoes and lashings of coriander/cilantro leaves and garlic. Some cayenne did give this dish a good 'kick'!
click here for Burani Bonjon recipe

Sabse Borani - spinach, caramelized onion and yogurt. This was served cold and complimented the rice and the aubergine dishes. It was great to dip the bread into.
click here for the Sabse Borni recipe

Noni Afghani - flour, yeast, yogurt. A bit like naan breads.
click here for the Noni Afghani recipe

Our first experience on our Global Table Adventure couldn't have gone better. Everything tasted good and we will be using these recipes again. We didn't do a dessert because it wasn't apple crumble! Anyway desserts that have rose water in do not need to be experienced! Maybe we will try some but it is not high on our list of things to cook.
We are really excited to visit Albanian cuisine next.

We made way too much Kabeli Palau and so had to use some spare geocaching containers to freeze the left overs!